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Crafting a new career in politics
The business side of crafts In 1981, when she started the Rosen Group, she also established the Buyers Market of American Craft, which remains one of the top trade shows in America, connecting artists with galleries, craft shops and retailers. Through the years she has also authored a book, Crafting as a Business, addressing business start-up topics for artists; produced a documentary, “Crafting an American Style,” tracing the evolution of crafts from their functional origins to their contemporary status as works of art; and created two magazines that she still
JANUARY 2012
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PHOTO BY JIM BURGER
By Carol Sorgen Wendy Rosen is “completely surprised” at how her life has evolved over the past three decades. In her 57 years, the former graphic designer-turned advertising executive-turned successful business owner has, along the way, also become a publisher, the founder of a trade association — and now a candidate for a U.S. Congressional seat from Maryland’s First District. It was at the age of 25, after selling advertising for the (now defunct) News American, as well as Baltimore magazine and the Towson Times, that Rosen first realized she loved helping small businesses solve their problems. The idea for her own business came about when she was attending an art fair and suggested to several of the exhibitors that they could promote their work at the show by having a hospitality suite. “They didn’t even know what [a hospitality suite] was!” said Rosen during an interview in her office at the Mill Centre. (Rosen helped develop this former Civil War mill in the Jones Falls Valley into a complex of offices and artists’ studios.) From that conversation close to 30 years ago, the Rosen Group was born. Through workshops, visits to art schools and skillbuilding programs, the service offers business planning tools to help artists sell their works to art dealers, museum stores and upscale retailers nationwide, “not just in their own neighborhood.” Today, the company serves about 2,000 artists and micro-manufacturers (startups who produce handmade items) throughout the U.S. and Canada.
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LEISURE & TRAVEL
Visiting Confucius’ home town in China; plus, how to become an airport VIP on the cheap page 22
ARTS & STYLE Wendy Rosen has devoted her multi-faceted career to helping American artists sell their works, to improving the market for U.S.-made crafts, and to advocating that legislators and consumers buy American. Her growing concern about global trade has now led her to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
publishes — AmericanStyle and NICHE. Even as Rosen was encouraging artists to take steps to grow their own businesses, she came to realize that she also wanted to advocate on their behalf to create new market opportunities for American-made products. At the same time, she felt it important to inform legislators and consumers about the importance of buying American. That became the impetus behind founding the American Made Alliance, a nonprofit trade association supporting the start-up and growth of micro-enterprise in the professional craft sector. Some of the association’s accomplishments in 2011 include: meeting with the staffs of legislators involved in the Made in
the USA movement, sponsoring an Arts Advocacy Day, partnering with the American Sustainable Business Council to brief the White House on sustainable business and domestic policy issues, and reviewing and reporting on the retail practices of gift stores that don’t “sell American,” including shops at the Grand Canyon and the Smithsonian.
On her soapbox But despite her efforts, it was Rosen’s growing disillusionment with the lack of jobs, the reliance on foreign goods and manufacturers, and what she calls the “obstructionist” Congress that has led this former See POLITICAL CAREER, page 21
The Lion King roars back into Baltimore; plus, where to find lifelong learning classes, and Linda Lavin talks about her busy career and new CD page 26
LAW & MONEY k Five retiree money mistakes k Fast food stocks on upswing
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FITNESS & HEALTH 10 k “Super broccoli” to the rescue k An app for better vision VOLUNTEERS & CAREERS k Cooking up a career
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PLUS CROSSWORD, BEACON BITS, CLASSIFIEDS & MORE